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An Orlando police officer caught on camera mocking and harming a homeless man last year should be charged with battery, the city’s review board stated Wednesday.
Officer James Wilson is seen both on cellphone video and police body cam allegedly punching Terre Johnson, 44, on Aug.26 without probable cause.
“[Wilson] confronted this individual and never told him he was under arrest. When the individual was walking away [Wilson] put his hands on him,” said the review board’s chair Henry Lim to the Orlando Sentinel. “He was in his face committing assault. The individual was not confronting the officer. It was the other way around.”
The official is seen approaching Johnson because his feet were in the street. That’s when an argument between the two began with Wilson allegedly telling Johnson he would give him a ticket.
The altercation between the men became physical.
Both individuals received injuries during the confrontation.
“[Johnson] is getting beat up by the officer MMA style,” Lim told WESH News. “This officer was not acting in an officer duty. He was there as a bully. Then the gravity of the use of force was so bad…I do not see how any reasonable person could exonerate this officer.”
Wilson was cleared of the incident and was verbally reprimanded following an internal affairs investigation.
“Just to have an oral reprimand for this. To me, it’s appalling. It’s absolutely appalling,” said Lim to WFTV News.
Johnson, however, was charged with assaulting an officer but that charge was thrown out during his trial.
Now Lim is suggestion Wilson be charged with battery; that decision lies in the hands of police Chief John Mina.
Mina told the Orlando Sentinel his officer’s actions were justified.
“Once I receive the report, I will carefully review it with my staff, will take the board’s advice into consideration in future matters and will take any other action that I deem appropriate,” Mina said to the Orlando Sentinel.
“It is absolutely dangerous to the community … because it erodes public confidence in the police department,” said Lim. “And when the community does not trust the police department, we do not have cooperation from the community in future investigations.”
Johnson is currently in jail for assaulting an officer in an unrelated incident.
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